Plagiarism, questionable declarations, and dubious wealth: the new candidates for the Constitutional Court

We continue to cover the interviews of candidates for the Constitutional Court. Yesterday, on July 15, the Advisory Group of Experts (AGE) interviewed three more candidates:

Nataliya Kaminska — professor at the National Aviation University.

Kaminska has previously attempted to join the Constitutional Court but was unsuccessful and received an integrity-related rejection from the AGE. However, she did not seek the full text of the decision to understand the specific reasons.

The AGE discovered another instance of plagiarism in the dissertations of Kaminska’s students, in addition to the previously reported plagiarism. Kaminska attributed this to improper citation and insisted that all works had undergone automated checks.

Kaminska declared €15,000 and $35,000. She claimed that part of the money was repaid debts and the other part was a gift from her grandfather and father. Her father allegedly saved this money in the late ’90s while working at a railcar factory, which seems doubtful.

Tamara Novikova — judge of the District Administrative Court of Cherkasy.

The High Council of Justice refused to appoint Novikova as a judge for a lifetime, and the High Qualification Commission of Judges found her unfit for the position. Novikova attributed this to a conflict with the court’s head, who allegedly influenced these decisions. She also mentioned asking the former corrupt head of the State Judicial Administration, Holodniuk, to appoint her to another court, even though he did not have such authority.

Despite her mother being a teacher, she somehow managed to pay for most of the new apartment’s cost — nearly 300,000 UAH. Novikova stated that her mother “takes offence” and refuses to explain the source of the money. Although Novikova declared over 1 million UAH in salary for 2023, she still complains that she cannot afford a chandelier for the apartment.

Oleksandr Radutny — associate professor of criminal law at Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University.

Radutny has previously attempted to join the Constitutional Court. We have reported on him before.

In 2023, Radutny’s salary decreased. He explained that he was compiling a new declaration based on the previous one and mistakenly carried over the wrong amount. He also failed to declare the money his wife received as an internally displaced person, believing it did not need to be declared.

In 2017, his wife bought an apartment for nearly 300,000 UAH. It turned out she legally documented the transfer of their old apartment as a gift when it was actually a sale. Radutny did not seek further information from his wife.

We continue to monitor the Constitutional Court candidate interviews and hope that the AGE members select the most worthy and professional candidates.